Local governments resist sharing work

Police officer Joe Hendricks, right, trains Colerain Township officers to do fire inspections with Colerain Township firefighters, an example of cooperating on services. Colerain is a community that has embraced shared services. But many communities are reluctant to yield any control in what they do. Left to right, Colerain firefighters Robert Hughes, Ryan Lucas, Timothy Michael, Capt. Mark Walsh and Hendricks inspect a Tyco fire system at Friendship Baptist Church.(Photo: The Enquirer/Joseph Fuqua II)

Story Highlights

Our region has claimed only 4 percent of the state's innovation funds

Proposals in northeast Ohio outnumber those here 12 to 1

Colerain Police Chief Mark Denney and the township's building and zoning director laugh at the question: Who is Officer Kyle Frandoni's boss?

"I never really thought about it," Denney said. "I guess it depends on the day."

Frandoni has become the township's sole code enforcement officer – a job previously performed by a few part-time park employees. It's one example, says Administrator Jim Rowan, of the teamwork between departments that will lead to lower costs and better service for township residents.

Rowan would like to collaborate in similar ways with his neighboring communities, but such discussions usually go no where – and it's that last part where some leaders at the state level say they're afraid Southwest Ohio is falling behind, or ignoring, a call for greater government efficiency.

What's clear is that Southwest Ohio agencies have shown little interest in applying for state money to consider new ways to share services through something known as the Local Government Innovation Fund, which offers grants and loans to study and implement ways to share staff, equipment and resources.

As it stands, every other region of the state has applied and received more of the $19.4 million dispensed so far.

More critics of shared services in Southwest Ohio?

Randy Cole – Gov. John Kasich's top adviser in charge of helping governments become more efficient – isn't exactly sure why, but critics of shared services have been louder in Southwest Ohio than in any other part of the state.

He speculates it's because Southwest Ohio's communities are older (Cincinnati is the oldest metropolitan city in the state) and changing the culture in older agencies can be more difficult because of tradition and antiquated systems.

Also, large employers like Procter & Gamble and General Electric have remained a strong presence in the region, keeping it "somewhat insulated from the economic downturn" compared to communities in Northeast Ohio, which suffered badly when the automotive and steel industries crumbled.

That is where shared services are really being embraced, he says, and applications to the innovation fund bear that out: While the Northeast region is home to more than twice as many people as the Southwest region (which includes Butler, Brown, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties) applications in the Northeast outpaced the Southwest 12 to 1.

Cole doesn't see it as a partisan issue, but adds that most of his best examples come from communities led by Democrats.

If you ask local leaders, most will say they are sharing enough services already: buying road salt together, coordinating efforts to repair roads and sidewalks, assisting each other in mutual aid for fires and medical service and participating in special police units, like SWAT teams and drug task forces.

But other Ohio communities go much farther: the city of Green and Green City Schools in Summit County now share an administration building and pool health care; the city of Tallmadge has a shared heavy equipment agreement with 12 other communities; and Summit County's health department has merged with its largest city, Akron.

Still, critics call the state grants a waste of taxpayer money and a slap in the face after Kasich cut $400 million from the local government fund and did away with the estate tax – money many communities came to expect for day-to-day spending.

Springfield applied for an innovation grant to study whether the township should train its future public safety officers to be both firefighters and police officers, but the application was denied, Hinnenkamp said.

Their proposal, like others, was likely not funded because it didn't incorporate multiple agencies, which is the whole point, Cole said. He said his staff is happy to meet with government agencies to increase the points on their application so they can try again. Applications have been accepted every three months; the next deadline is June 9.

Also, the state has added two more offerings to local governments in the form of the Local Government Efficiency Program. A two-part program, one arm awards money to study ways to save money within a single agency, the other provides scholarships for weeklong training on how to run a lean, seamless organization.

Others say more shared services would damage local control.

"We firmly believe each community knows how it wants its police department to function," said Newtown Police Chief Thomas Synan, president of the Hamilton County Chiefs of Police. He said shared services put Newtown at a disadvantage about a decade ago, when their volunteer firefighters joined the Little Miami Fire District. Five years later Newtown voters turned down a levy, but neighboring communities approved it, so everyone is paying the tax.

Many leaders, including Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann and City Councilwoman Amy Murray, chair of council's Major Transportation and Regional Cooperation Committee, have said they will keep fighting for greater collaboration and that gaps in county and city budgets require it, despite a similar effort in 2010 that went nowhere.

"We demonstrated the savings that could be achieved by sharing printing and (human resources) and vehicles," said Jim O'Reilly, a University of Cincinnati law professor and Wyoming councilman, who served as a co-chair on the Government Reform Task Force.

Hamilton County applied for two innovation grants – one to study how it could better use county space and another to see how it could better work with the city of Cincinnati – but both were denied.

Still, others in the region have been awarded funds, including Sycamore Community Schools, which was awarded roughly $60,000 to study ways to share services with the cities of Blue Ash and Montgomery. Warren County Career Center got $72,000 to study whether a fire and technical rescue training facility would benefit several agencies in the county, as well as the center.

Others around the state have seen the value in collaboration.

A new consolidated dispatch system in Cuyahoga County, which hopes to fold 57 centers into five, is working flawlessly so far, said Orange Village Police Lt. Nick DiCicco.

"Before, if you called the wrong dispatch center, a dispatcher would take information, call the proper authorities and give them the information," DiCicco said. His little village could have never afforded to upgrade to GPS technology, which he said is helping responders get to emergencies faster.

The state's goal is to one day have the entire state on the same system – not under one combined government, Cole points out, but a "system of systems."

Before governments work more together, many, like Colerain, say the focus remains on breaking down silos within their own departments.

"As difficult as it was for us to embrace the cuts, it has made us more accountable, smarter with how we utilize our resources ... every day," Rowan said. "I hate to say it, but without those budget cuts ... I'm not sure that it would have necessarily received the attention that it has." ■

Who has applied and who has received state innovation grants in Southwest Ohio?

Applications approved

Southern Hills Joint Vocational School District (Georgetown, Ohio)

Sycamore Community Schools

Warren County Career Center

Brown County Communication Center

Butler County Integrated Development Budget Project

Southwest Ohio Computer Association (serves school districts throughout the state, based in Hamilton)

Applications denied

Springfield Township

Milford

Wyoming (five applications)

Carlisle

Hamilton (city)

Hamilton County (two applications)

Hamilton Township

Silverton

Southwest Ohio Computer Association

Source: Ohio Development Services Office of Energy and Redevelopment

49 types of government

Since Ohio became a state in 1803, the number of government agencies has grown from 11 different types to 49. Together they are estimated to handle roughly $50 billion this year: $35 billion from local taxes and fees, $13.6 billion from the state and $2.2 billion from the federal government.